Hacker News Reader

Comment by j_baker | Hacker News Reader

Porter forgot the number 1 rule of politics: If your opponent is making a mistake, don't stop him. I understand what Pierce is saying (and can't help sympathizing), but I can't help thinking that writing that editorial was poor taste on Pierce's part, and probably would have reflected poorly on him had Porter kept his mouth shut and not turned him into a martyr.

I mean, if you disagree with a potential employer's" values", it's career suicide to write a widely distributed Op-Ed about it unless that value is something like "Don't club baby seals" and you have hard proof that said employer is actively clubbing baby seals. Calling them evil over what is essentially a contract dispute (even if it's a perfectly valid contract dispute) would make me think twice before negotiating a contract with him. If he's writing an Op-Ed about them, what's to prevent him from writing an Op-Ed about me if he doesn't like my terms?

View on HN

> I mean, if you disagree with a potential employer's" values", it's career suicide to...

It's not career suicide. People should talk about shitty places to work more often, and there's no way Zynga can keep another company from hiring the guy. The only time you see "you'll never work in this town again!" work is when all the companies are colluding to control the labor market. In programming that hasn't happened yet, so he can say pretty much whatever he wants and still get a job.

In fact, it was easier for me to get a job after I demolished Ruby on Rails for being the piece of shit that it is. People like honesty.

There's a world difference between speaking ill of an open source project and speaking ill of someone you couldn't negotiate a contract with. We're used to people ranting about open source projects. It happens every day.

In a perfect world, people would be able to expose employers who are doing wrong with impunity. In the real world, it's difficult to do so without repercussions. How do you think companies like Zynga can still recruit developers?

Well, given how many people Zynga is buying vs. the mass exodus that seems to be happening in S.F. from them, I'd be interested in seeing their recruitment numbers.

I highly doubt dissing on Zynga when he didn't take a job there is going to hurt his chances of being hired by other software shops (for one thing, we all sit around dissing on Zynga too.)

I respect honesty, priorities and transparency. I'd hire the guy. We aren't MBAs, after all: our goal isn't to hide behind a web of obscurity while we sell our clients bonds too toxic for us to hold. We want to hire people with side projects as long as they won't distract from their work for us.

He will have lost some crappy jobs at crappy companies that want cogs instead of collaborators. I don't think it's going to be a major disappointment for him.

you have hard proof that said employer is actively clubbing baby seals

From all we've read about Zynga they seem to fit the bill just shy of actually clubbing animals...

It'd be a great sequel to Farmville.

Imagine the viral traffic you could get when people have seen "moe clubbed two obnoxious baby seals" in your facebook ticker a few times an hour for a while.

You should probably go back and re-read the editorial; He didn't call them evil because of a contract dispute.

Personally, I'd have no trouble hiring Shay Pierce. I like it when people I hire have some backbone and some moral sense. Obedience is occasionally useful, but making software is essentially a creative effort (as is starting a new company). For that, you need people who can think independently from the basis of shared values.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com